Reaper's Gale/Chapter 17
}} Lether The marines are deep in the Lether territory being hounded by Edur and Letherii patrols and groups intent on ambushing them. Beak has been hiding his group, which includes Captain Faradan Sort, from Letherii mages as they try to catch up with Malazan marines from Urb and Hellian's squads who have penetrated deep behind enemy lines. As opposed to what they had expected, they find the Letherii forces working for the Edur. The two squads had run into an Edur and Letherii patrol and ambushed them, Urb losing one of his squad in the melee to follow. They are found by the Captain after that, and in a quick meeting, Hellian proposes they push forward mean and fast. Faradan Sort cannot argue with the logic, but asks them to go easy for a few days. Fiddler's and Gesler's squad have just escaped an ambush thanks to Corabb's luck. Corabb had flushed a dear out which caused the Letherii to discharge their crossbows on it, announcing their presence, and Fiddler and his squad quickly turned the ambush. They were nearly killed by the Letherii mage, but Fiddler fired a cusser at him taking most of the other soldiers down as well. Knowing that they are being followed, Fiddler decides to do The Drum, a configuration of cussers set as a trap to take down the column of soldiers following them. The rest of his squad and Gesler's squad go to investigate a farmhouse they see further up the road. Fiddler sets about and plants the cussers with Cuttle's help. Bottle leads the squads towards the farmhouse and detects two beings inside. Gesler sends Uru Hela to find out who they are by requesting water from them, when the two creatures charge out and Bottle realizes that they are Kenryll'ah demons. One of the demons kills Uru Hela. The marines repel the two with close in-fighting and munitions and withdraw. Bottle uses Mockra and confuses them into believing the troop that attacked them went towards the way the Letherii and Edur are coming up. This causes the demons to go and attack the Letherii troop who are now walking into the Drum. As the marines stop and rest at an abandoned farmhouse further ahead, they hear the cussers go off, and Bottle detects that the demons were also present there when the cussers went off. Fist Keneb is at the base overlooking the covert marine invasion while Fist Blistig's regulars and the Adjunct are making their way around as the marines hold the Edur's attention. He realizes that his marines are spread thin and outnumbered, but resolves to keep pushing forward. On the border of Verdith'anath and the Refugium Hedge has been keeping Emroth company and trying to figure out his state. He figures out that he is only present because he has willed himself into existence, and that is possible because all dead Bridgeburners have ascended. He tries to figure out where Emroth is going and why she is doing so, and figures out that she intends to sway the Imass living there to her cause, which is the Crippled God's cause. Realizing this, Hedge throws his conjured cusser at her utterly destroying her just she was about to cross the border and find a soul after hundreds of thousands of years. Hedge is left with more than a few regrets when he sees that her leg which had fallen into the Refugium's area had turned into flesh. Lether In the evening, Fiddler and Gesler's squad move out, hearing moranth munitions detonate to the their North first then their South, which means the Edur and Letherii are trying to flush out the marines. 17